Charles H. "Pretzels" Getzien (surname sometimes spelled as Getzein; February 14, 1864 – June 19, 1932) was a German-born American professional baseball pitcher. He played all or parts of nine seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with five different National League teams from 1884 to 1892. He was the first German-born regular player in the National League.

Sources conflict as to whether the nickname was derived from his German ethnicity or from the belief that he was able to throw a "double curve" following "the curves of a pretzel." During his major league career, Getzien compiled a 145–139 win–loss record and a 3.46 earned run average (ERA). He threw 277 complete games, a total that ranks 58th in major league history. Only three pitchers threw more complete games in major league careers shorter than Getzien's nine-year career.

Getzien had his most extensive playing time with the Detroit Wolverines, compiling records of 30–11 and 29–13 in 1886 and 1887, respectively. In the 1887 World Series (which Detroit won, 10 games to 5), Getzien pitched six complete games and compiled a 4–2 record with a 2.48 ERA. He also won 23 games for the Boston Beaneaters in 1890.

Getzien was born in 1864; present-day baseball references list his place of birth as Germany, and while an 1887 article in Sporting Life stated that he was born in Chicago, his entry in the 1900 United States census lists his birth country as Germany and that he immigrated to the United States in 1865. Getzien began playing baseball as a boy in Chicago. He played as an amateur in the Chicago City League.

During his career, Getzien drew acclaim for his curveball. Getzien's version of the pitch was sometimes referred to as the "pretzel curve." Sporting Life described Getzien's unusual delivery as follows: "In delivering his 'pretzels' 'Getz' faces third base with one foot in either corner of the lower end of the box. Bending the left knee slightly, he draws his right arm well back. Then, straightening up quickly, he slides the left foot forward with a characteristic little skip, and, bringing his arm around with a swift overhand swing, drives the ball in at a lively pace."

After a Getzien victory over the Kansas City Cowboys in 1886, the Detroit Free Press wrote: "The Pretzel is all right. He went into the box to-day and pitched one of his finest, his curves circling around in the form of the delicious pastry from which Getz takes his sobriquet." However, the editor of the Grand Rapids World opined that Getzien's "curved ball" was a fiction. He wrote:

"The baseball enthusiasts claim for Getzein that he is able to so pitch a ball that it will describe the arc of a circle on a horizontal plane before reaching the catcher, and that therein lies the secret of his marvelous pitching . . . Scientifically, this theory is utterly absurd. The forces that act upon a ball pitched by Getzein are not different from those which operate upon a projectile thrown from any other source, and the results must be the same, and governed by the same laws. The curves are in the imagination of Getzein's admirers. When the ball leaves his hand it is beyond his control, and it moves forward from the impulse last given it as it leaves his hand. It is then controlled by the force of propulsion, the resistance of the atmosphere, and gravitation. . . . Getzein's antic and deceptive motions may deceive the batter, so that he is unable to discover the exact course of the ball in time to strike it, but he cannot throw a ball so as to make a curve on the horizontal plane."

The Scientific American magazine responded in July 1886 by publishing an article written by Henry Chadwick (accompanied by several diagrams, two of which are reproduced above) explaining the physics behind the curve ball pitch.